Paine states 'there is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy.'
What are some of the 'ridiculous' aspects according to Paine?
What does Paine say about the process of hereditary succession?
Paine mentions nature and natural laws several times. How is this connected back to our
notes about the Enlightenment?
What is Paine's opinion concerning colonial independence? (Found mostly on page 121)
How does Paine use religion at the top of page 123? Who is the rightful 'King of
America' according to Paine?
THE WAR FOR AMERICA, 1775-1783
121
y; it
THOUGHTS ON THE PRESENT STATE
OF AMERICAN AFFAIRS
tin
som
ere-
ve
ments, and common sense....
In the following pages I offer nothing more than simple facts, plain argu-
Volumes have been written on the subject of the struggle between England
and America. Men of all ranks have embarked in the controversy, from different
debate is closed. Arms, as the last resource, decide the contest; the appeal was the
motives, and with various designs; but all have been ineffectual, and the period of
choice of the king, and the continent hath accepted the challenge.
ild
on
S.
nd
The sun never shined on a cause of greater worth. 'Tis not the affair of a city,
a country, a province, or a kingdom, but of a continent- of at least one eighth part
of the habitable globe. Tis not the concern of a day, a year, or an age; posterity are
virtually involved in the contest, and will be more or less affected, even to the end
of time, by the proceedings now. Now is the seed time of continental union, faith
ey
le
and honour.
I have heard it asserted by some, that as America hath flourished under her
former connection with Great Britain, that the same connection is necessary
towards her future happiness, and will always have the same effect. Nothing can
be more fallacious than this kind of argument. ... I answer roundly, that America
power
had
would have flourished as much, and probably much more, had no European
any thing to do with her. The commerce by which she hath enriched
the custom of Europe.
herself are the necessaries of life, and will always have a market while eating is
Alas, we have been long led away by ancient prejudices, and made large
sacrifices to superstition. We have boasted the protection of Great Britain, without
considering, that her motive was interest not attachment; that she did not protect
us from our enemies on our account, but from her enemies on her own account.
But Britain is the parent country, say some. Then the more shame upon her
conduct. Even brutes do not devour their young, nor savages make war upon
their families. ... Europe, and not England, is the parent country of America. This
new world hath been the asylum for the persecuted lovers of civil and religious
liberty from every part of Europe. Hither have they fled, not from the tender
embraces of the mother, but from the cruelty of the monster; and it is so far true
of England, that the same tyranny which drove the first emigrants from home,
pursues their descendants still.
I challenge the warmest advocate for reconciliation, to shew, a single advan-
tage that this continent can reap, by being connected with Great Britain. I repeat
the challenge, not a single advantage is derived. Our corn will fetch its price in
any market in Europe, and our imported goods must be paid for buy them where
we will.
But the injuries and disadvantages we sustain by that connection, are without
number; and our duty to mankind at large, as well as to ourselves, instruct us to
renounce the alliance: Because, any submission to, or dependence on Great Brit-
ain, tends directly to involve this continent in European wars and quarrels; and
sets us at variance with nations, who would otherwise seek our friendship, and
against whom, we have neither anger nor complaint. As Europe is our market for
trade, we ought to form no partial connection with any part of it. It is the true
interest of America to steer clear of European contentions, which she never can do,
while by her dependence on Britain, she is made the make-weight in the scale of
British politics.
READING THE AMEI
122
B
above
we m
set ar
law,
know
For a
the one, over the other, was never the design of Heaven.
Europe is too thickly planted with kingdoms to be long at peace, and when
ever a war breaks out between England and any foreign power, the trade of Amer-
ica goes to ruin, because of her connection with Britain. . . . Every thing that is right
nature cries, 'TIS TIME TO PART. Even the distance at which the Almighty hath
or natural pleads for separation. The blood of the slain, the weeping voice of
placed England and America, is a strong and natural proof, that the authority of
and, still hoping for the best, are apt to call out, “Come we shall be friends again for
Men of passive tempers look somewhat lightly over the offences of Britain,
. But if you say, you can still pass the violations over, then I ask, Hath
your wife and children destitute of a bed to lie on, or bread to live on? Have you
to be
arise
tered
all this.
your house been burnt? Hath your property been destroyed before your
face? Are
sur-
you
refle
is in
man
time
yea
mer
exp
the
bru
tyrd
dor
any
Eu
O!
lost a parent or a child by their hands, and yourself the ruined and wretched
vivor? If you have not, then are you not a judge of those who have. But if
have, and can still shake hands with the murderers, then are you unworthy the
name of husband, father, friend, or lover, and whatever may be your rank or title
in life, you have the heart of a coward, and the spirit of a sycophant.
I mean not to exhibit horror for the purpose of provoking revenge, but to
awaken us from fatal and unmanly slumbers, that we may pursue determinately
some fixed object. It is not in the power of Britain or of Europe to conquer Amer.
ica, if she did not conquer herself by delay and timidity.
It is repugnant to reason, to the universal order of things, to all examples from
the former ages, to suppose, that this continent can longer remain subject to
external power.
Reconciliation is and was a fallacious dream. Nature hath
deserted the connection, and Art cannot supply her place...
Small islands not capable of protecting themselves, are the proper objects for
kingdoms to take under their care; but there is something very absurd, in suppos-
ing a continent to be perpetually governed by an island. In no instance hath nature
made the satellite larger than its primary planet, and as England and America,
with respect to each other, reverses the common order of nature, it is evident they
belong to different systems: England to Europe, America to itself.
But the most powerful of all arguments, is, that nothing but independence,
i.e.[] a continental form of government, can keep the peace of the continent and
preserve it inviolate from civil wars....
If there is any true cause of fear respecting independence, it is because no
plan is yet laid down. Men do not see their way out, Wherefore, as an opening into
that business, I offer the following hints.
LET the assemblies be annual, with a President only. The representation more
equal. Their business wholly domestic, and subject to the authority of a Continen-
QY
1.
2.
3
4
tal Congress
Let each colony be divided into six, eight, or ten, convenient districts, each
district to send a proper number of delegates to Congress.
[L]et a CONTINENTAL CONFERENCE be held.... [L]et their business be to
frame a CONTINENTAL CHARTER, or Charter of the United Colonies; (answer-
ing to what is called the Magna Charta of England) fixing the number and manner
of choosing members of Congress
, members of Assembly, with their date of sit
ting, and drawing the line of business and jurisdiction between them: (Always
remembering, that our strength is continental, not provincial:) Securing freedom
and property to all men, and above all things the free exercise of religion, accord-
ing to the dictates of conscience; with such other matter as is necessary for a char-
ter to contain.
READING THE AMERICAN PAST
120
Common Sense, January 1776
me
There is something exceedingly ridiculous in the composition of monarchy
first excludes a man from the means of information, yet empowers him to act in
cases where the highest judgment is required. The state of a king shuts him from
fore the different parts, unnaturally opposing and destroying each other,
the world, yet the business of a king requires him to know it thoroughly; where
Mankind being originally equals in the order of creation, the equality could
the whole character to be absurd and useless.
an
m
de
ch
only be destroyed by some subsequent circumstance.
But there is ... [a] distinction for which no truly natural or
. . .
religious
reason
can be assigned, and that is, the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS.
Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of
a
scrip-
. . .
• •
.
heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and
distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they
are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.
As the exalting one man so greatly above the rest cannot be justified on the
equal rights of nature, so neither can it be defended on the authority of
ture.
That the Almighty hath. entered his protest against monarchial govern-
ment is true, or the scripture is false. For monarchy in every instance is the
Popery of government.
To the evil of monarchy we have added that of hereditary succession. For
all men being originally equals, no one by birth could have a right to set up his own
family in perpetual preference to all others for ever. One of the strongest natu-
ral proofs of the folly of hereditary right in kings, is, that nature disapproves it,
otherwise she would not so frequently turn it into ridicule by giving mankind an
ass for a lion.
[C]ould we take off the dark covering of antiquity, and trace (the present
lineage of kings] to their first rise,
we should find the first of them nothing bet-
ter than the principal ruffian of some restless gang, whose savage manners or
pre-eminence in subtlety obtained him the title of chief among plunderers.
But it is not so much the absurdity as the evil of hereditary succession which
concerns mankind. Did it ensure a race of good and wise men it would have the
seal of divine authority, but as it opens a door to the foolish, the wicked, and the
improper
, it hath in it the nature of oppression. Men who look upon themselves
born to reign, and others to obey, soon grow insolent; selected from the rest of
mankind their minds are early poisoned by importance; and the world they act in
differs so materially from the world at large, that they have but little opportunity
quently the most ignorant and unfit of any throughout the dominions.
of knowing its true interests, and when they succeed to the government are fre-
In England a
khath little more to do than to make war and give away
ears. A pretty business indeed for a man to be allowed eight hundred thousand
sterling a year for, and worshipped into the bargain! Of more worth is one honest
man to society, and in the sight of God, than all the crowned ruffians that ever
lived.
THE WAR FOR AMERICA, 1775--1783
123
But where says some is the King of America? I'll tell
we may not appear to be defective even in earthly honours, let a day be solemnly
above, and doth not make havoc of mankind like the Royal-of Britain. Yet that
set apart for proclaiming the charter; let it be brought forth placed on the divine
law, the word of God; let a crown be placed thereon, by which the world may
know, that so far as we approve of monarchy, that in America THE LAW IS KING.
to be King; and there ought to be no other. But lest any ill use should afterwards
arise, let the crown at the conclusion of the ceremony be demolished, and scat-
tered among the people whose right it is.
time and chance.
A government of our own is our natural right: And when a man seriously
reflects on the precariousness of human affairs, he will become convinced that it
s infinitely wiser and safer, to form a constitution of our own in a cool deliberate
manner, while we have it in our power, than to trust such an interesting event to
Ye that oppose independence now, ye know not what ye do;
ye are opening a door to eternal tyranny, by keeping vacant the seat of govern-
ment. There are thousands and tens of thousands, who would think it glorious to
expel from the continent, that barbarous and hellish power, which hath stirred up
the Indians and Negroes to destroy us; the cruelty hath a double guilt, it is dealing
brutally by us, and treacherously by them.
Oye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the
tyrant, stand forth! Every spot of the old world is over-run with oppression. Free-
dom hath been hunted round the globe. Asia, and Africa, have long expelled her-
Europe regards her like a stranger, and England hath given her warning to depart.
O! receive the fugitive, and prepare in time an asylum for mankind.
QUESTIONS FOR READING AND DISCUSSION
1. How did Paine use concepts of equality, reason, and nature to criticize the
legitimacy of monarchical government and British control of the colonies?
2. What arguments did Paine give for independence? How were his observations
about monarchy connected to his reasons for independence? Why did he pro-
pose that law should be "King of America"?
3. Why did he believe that attempts at reconciliation were "a fallacious dream"?
4. Independence, according to Paine, would "expel from the continent, that bar-
barous and hellish power, which hath stirred up the Indians and Negroes to
destroy us" and would create "an asylum for mankind." In what sense would
an independent America be an asylum, and for whom?
DOCUMENT 7-2
Letters of John and Abigail Adams
daliherated in Philadelphia on the colonial crisis,
Purchase answer to see full
attachment